Adopted amendments to the Code on the TV and radio service improved the monopoly of oligarch Vladimir Plahotniuc on the media market. This was stated on Monday at the press conference of representatives of the Civil Forum, who heavily criticized the authorities for rejecting demands from the civil society to establish basic democratic principles and regulations, the Moldovan resource OMG reported. According to the amendments, Plahotniuc’s media holding is able to get at least two additional TV rates for a digital broadcasting package.
Earlier, Russian journalists of VGTRK, LifeNews, and First Channel were forbidden from visiting Moldova. The Russian Foreign Ministry considered this “another serious violation of the international law on human rights, freedom of speech, fundamental principles of a democratic society by Chisinau.”
The director of the International Institute of Newest States, Alexey Martynov, thinks that Moldova has established a police-oligarchic regime for serving the business of one particular person – Vladimir Plahotniuc. “He is one of one and a half oligarchs, because Moldova is a small country. It is not Ukraine, which has many oligarchs. Almost all the security agencies and institutions of the Republic of Moldova obey Plahotniuc. Today he has control over parliament, today he has control over the government. Promoting his prime minister, who formed the government, he has his own ministers. He is the only and sole leader of this small, poor European country.”
According to Martynov, following this logic, it was necessary to abandon democratic procedures, declare Moldova a Principality, appoint Plahotniuc the lord and blame him for everything that is happening today in the Republic of Moldova. “There are daily actions of protest, they go there as a job, demand something. Actually, those in power do not care about the opposition's demands. Thus this is a dead end.”
